The Real Explosives Prodigy

Sirius Black was tucked under the old man's arm and slowly carried deep into the Forbidden Forest. Before long, the man and dog arrived at a simple but fairly comfortable campsite.

The old man slowly set down Sirius, whose limbs were stiff as boards. "Let me introduce myself. I'm Gellert Grindelwald."

Sirius, who had been somewhat frightened at encountering a dog catcher in the Forbidden Forest, breathed a sigh of relief. A dog catcher would not have introduced himself to a dog.

Then some long-buried memories from History of Magic surfaced in his mind. Grindelwald? That wasn't right. Wasn't he imprisoned in Nurmengard? How had he escaped?

Grindelwald seemed to have seen through Sirius's thoughts. He gently nudged him with his foot, wanting him to change back and ask the question aloud so he could answer it himself. "Is being a dog fun?"

Realizing he had been seen through, Sirius rolled over, transformed back into a human, and stood up. "Gellert Grindelwald? The Dark wizard who burned Paris back then? Shouldn't you be imprisoned in Nurmengard?"

Hearing Sirius ask that question, Grindelwald wore an expression of pure satisfaction. "It's merely self-imprisonment, giving both Dumbledore and me a reason to leave each other in peace. It can't even really be called imprisonment. I'm relatively free, as long as I return to a certain place at a certain time to meet my certain fate."

"So you came here to... give Dumbledore a reason to leave each other in peace?" Sirius instinctively found that hard to believe. He had already turned back into a human, so why was this old man still trying to fool him like a dog?

Grindelwald was helpless too. The last time he had secretly gone out was during the first year of his self-imprisonment in Nurmengard, when he